Reed Anthony, Cowman eBook

George Edwards loaned me a wagon and two yoke of oxen,
even going along himself for company. The commissary
was outfitted for a month’s stay, and a day
in advance of the expected arrival of the surveyor
the outfit was started up the Brazos. Each of
the men had one or more private horses, and taking
all of mine along, we had a remuda of thirty odd saddle
horses. George and I remained behind, and on the
arrival of the surveyor we rode by way of Palo Pinto,
the county seat, to which all unorganized territory
to the west was attached for legal purposes.
Our chief motive in passing the town was to see if
there were any lands located near the juncture of
the Clear Fork with the mother stream, and thus secure
an established corner from which to begin our survey.
But the records showed no land taken up around the
confluence of these watercourses, making it necessary
to establish a corner.

Under the old customs, handed down from the Spanish
to the Texans, corners were always established from
natural landmarks. The union of creeks arid rivers,
mounds, lagoons, outcropping of rock, in fact anything
unchangeable and established by nature, were used as
a point of commencement. In the locating of Spanish
land grants a century and a half previous, sand-dunes
were frequently used, and when these old concessions
became of value and were surveyed, some of the corners
had shifted a mile or more by the action of the wind
and seasons on the sand-hills. Accordingly, on
overtaking our outfit we headed for the juncture of
the Brazos and Clear Fork, reaching our destination
the second day. The first thing was to establish
a corner or commencement point. Some heavy timber
grew around the confluence, so, selecting an old patriarch
pin oak between the two streams, we notched the tree
and ran a line to low water at the juncture of the
two rivers. Other witness trees were established
and notched, lines were run at angles to the banks
of either stream, and a hole was dug two feet deep
between the roots of the pin oak, a stake set therein,
and the excavation filled with charcoal and covered.
A legal corner or commencement point was thus established;
but as the land that I coveted lay some distance up
the Clear Fork, it was necessary first to run due
south six miles and establish a corner, and thence
run west the same distance and locate another one.

The thirty sections of land scrip would entitle me
to a block of ground five by six miles in extent,
and I concluded to locate the bulk of it on the south
side of the Clear Fork. A permanent camp was now
established, the actual work of locating the land requiring
about ten days, when the surveyor and Edwards set
out on their return. They were to touch at the
county seat, record the established corners and file
my locations, leaving the other boys and me behind.
It was my intention to build a corral and possibly
a cabin on the land, having no idea that we would
remain more than a few weeks longer. Timber was